Torched by an Angel
by Psychoblue
Summary: How far would you go to protect someone you care about? Would you give up godhood for them? Would you give up your very soul? Two fighters considering themselves closest to God fight for custody of Kazuya Mishima. Gill vs Angel oneshot


He was supposed to be beyond this feeling.

He was supposed to be the savior that the prophecies foretold of long ago. He was supposed to be the one who fulfilled the ambitions of the society that were once considered distant dreams. He was supposed to represent the next step in human evolution. He was supposed to be a shepherd that led the enlightened and converted the blasphemers, beyond the base human emotions of hate, avarice, and wrath.

So why did Gill, the ultimate embodiment of harmony whose physical and mental prowess were so perfect that his body was a flawlessly balanced hue of blue and red, with a long golden mane as shimmering as the finest gold, take such delight in watching the blood of the fallen pool on the floor?

With the emerald jewel on his forehead gradually fading as his heart rate evened, Gill looked past the blood pooling at his feet and to the fallen himself. If Gill was the shepherd of humanity, the man who Gill had just beaten was a wolf. Gill was no stranger to having martial artists challenge him, going so far as to considering martial artists the potential leaders of the new age he would usher in, but very few were so morally deformed like this fallen fighter. The deformities were so deep, in fact, that Gill's servants warned him that the opponent was the Devil Made Flesh.

"...Kazuya Mishima…"

Gill noticed that the defeated foe was beginning to stir, and thus called out his name. Though it was hard to believe now, with his white karate pants deeply stained in his own blood, his previous scarred body now further marred with burns and bruises and his once-immaculate hair drenched in crimson, but Kazuya was once hailed as the strongest martial artist in the world. Having won the initial King of Iron Fist tournament, Kazuya used his strength to realize his ambitions of complete global conquest. Prior to this unfortunate incident was very close to achieving these ambitions as the secret head of G-Corporation and the supposed hero that the world clamored for to stand up to the Mishima Zaibatsu that he once led.

Kazuya groaned loudly as he faded in and out of consciousness, wondering how this defeat could have happened as he struggled to maintain awareness of his surroundings. He had come to this supposedly secret temple to challenge the owner of the Pandora fragment that his scientists had detected, expecting another easy but brutal victory. He had sacrificed so much for the sake of absolute power: his honor, his family, even his humanity. The darkness that had filled his soul was so profound that his DNA was fused with that of the Devil that claimed him in his childhood. He was more demon than man now, though if things would continue as they are he would be nothing more than dead meat as lifeless as the tiles that he was leaking over.

"It doesn't have to end this way, Kazuya."

Gill knelt down as Kazuya tried to push himself off the ground. Dying on his belly would have been a humiliating death, but to meet his end at the hands of this false messiah was completely unacceptable. Thankfully, Gill was giving him ample opportunity to recover by offering a monologue.

"Your soul is damaged. It's been damaged for a very long time. All you've ever known is unimaginable pain on a physical and spiritual level. This pain is so ingrained into your mind that you instinctively seek to eradicate those who would offer you salvation. Love, compassion, mercy: these emotions are base substances that your body instantly rejects. Because of this, all you are left with is your hate."

Gill smiled as Kazuya continued to bleed out at his feet. It was here, when his opponents were at death's door, that they were at their most attentive. Kazuya might not have been responding to him in words, but Gill knew that he was listening to his words intently. Perhaps this is why Gill enjoys the complete decimation of his foes so much, because creation could not begin without destruction. It was only when a man had reached the very bottom could ascension be his only recourse.

"I do not hate you, Kazuya. To be truthful, I take pity on you. What you feel is not a sin, but an affliction, and above all else I consider myself a healer. I take pride in taking men such as yourself under my care and leading them on the true path of enlightenment. It is only through balance can one's soul truly be considered perfect, and I want to mold your clay soul into a statue."

Finally, Kazuya lifted his head and looked Gill in the face. The blood that had pooled from his body had reached his head, so when he lifted up, a good deal of it dripped down from his forehead and hair, and his teeth were stained with dark red. But his left eye glowed with crimson determination, indicating that he was unquestionably awake. Gill lowered his open hand to Kazuya's face and made his offer.

"All you need to do, Kazuya Mishima...is take my hand."

Gill did not take offense when Kazuya lifted his hand and struck Gill with whatever strength he had left. The blow landed squarely in Gill's nerve center near his cheek: a knockout blow for anyone who was not of Gill's unique status. Clearly Kazuya had not yet reached the bottom, so Gill took it upon himself to show him the way by grabbing onto Kazuya's head and slamming him into the ground with such force that the tiled floor cracked and splintered into fragments upon impact. This time, Kazuya was completely still save for shallow, labored breaths.

If Kazuya was not cursed with the name "Mishima," he would most certainly be dead by now. But Gill could sense that Kazuya had reached "the bottom." Though Kazuya was too engulfed with pride to admit it, he knew that he was completely as Gill's mercy with no way out. His body, even with the Devil Gene, could not heal fast enough without Gill quickly putting an end to his life. He had expended what was left of his vaunted strength in that last punch, and it didn't even leave a blemish. It was a situation he couldn't have fathomed, but even as Kazuya closed his eyes he remained defiant. He would have rather festered at the bottom than be forced to rise to the top against his will.

"Kazuya...I accept your hand. Now, as your shepherd, I will lead you to a better life. My gifts allow me to reach into a man's soul, and through healing that soul, promote harmony across everything connected to him. This Devil Gene of yours is a steroid: a short-term enhancement with long-term damaging effects. I will strain this Devil Gene of yours, dilute it and more evenly distribute it across your body. When you wake up, you will realize what has happened, and you will thank me. You will become one of my disciples, and together with your G-Corporation we shall lead the world into an Age of Enlightenment."

In most cases, Gill's followers needed minimal coercion to realize that his way was the way of harmony, but there were rare, extreme cases where Gill needed to be a stern parent to the naughty child. As Gill charged his fiery and chilling ki and reached down to take Kazuya's head once more, he prepared to centrifuge Kazuya's body and soul and mused at what a powerful and competent disciple he would have when this was all over. Even now he could sense the defiance in Kazuya's soul, like a brat who wouldn't sit in time-out. But it was the more difficult students that Gill took pleasure in enlightening.

Gill probed Kazuya's soul and was about to begin the process of duality, when a markedly different energy than what he was expecting suddenly activated within that soul. Gill had thought that Kazuya's darkness was so overwhelming that light had to be reintroduced into him, but now a light purer than Gill had ever felt was forcibly driving Gill's influence out of Kazuya. When the influence threatened to completely overwhelm Gill, he opened his eyes and dropped Kazuya to the floor, where he landed in a heap.

Gill looked past Kazuya and saw that he was no longer alone. Standing over the fallen Mishima was a woman, dressed in shimmering white robes with clean skin and short golden hair held in a hearth with a sapphire jewel placed in the center of her tiara. Feathery wings as white as arctic snow arched from her back, and crystalline blue eyes looked down upon the fallen warrior. Was this the source of the light that drove Gill away from Kazuya?

"Madam...I'm in the middle of an operation. I would prefer if no one interfered."

From one savior to another, Gill addressed the entity as politely as he could while ignoring whatever anger he might as felt for being interrupted. Whoever this woman was, she radiated with the light of a prime celestial force that even Gill could respect. But as fascinated as Gill was by the Angel that had come down to visit him, he remained devoted to his patient, and stepped forward to reclaim Kazuya and again dichotomize the conflicting forces within him.

But the moment Gill stepped forward, the Angel suddenly lifted her head towards Gill and shot him a glare of such uncommon wrath that the supposedly-perfect leader of the Secret Society froze in his tracks. It was a moment's hesitation that Gill paid for dearly, as a piercing beam of white light blasted out of the Angel's tiara and pierced Gill through his right shoulder. For the first time in a long while, Gill's molten-hot blood dripped on the tiled floor, and his eyes widened in shock.

The Angel knelt down next to Kazuya and placed her hand on his head, grimacing at the red-and-blue dichotomy Gill had forced upon him. With a soft glow enveloping him, Kazuya had the dichotomy removed from him, restoring his natural skin color and the cursed Devil Gene along with it. The Angel smiled thinly, but her smile was wiped away when a ball of frozen ki smashed against her face, forcing her stumbling away as the ki encased half of her face and left shoulder in ice.

The ice shattered moments later as the Angel broke free and diverted all of her attention to Gill, who altered his stance into a fighting position while Angel bared her teeth and entered her own.

"It would seem that I will need to prove myself in order to claim custody of Kazuya. Very well...I accept your trial. Come at me with everything you have, servant of Heaven!"

The Angel did not formally introduce herself, but Gill knew who this woman was to Kazuya the moment she removed Gill's blessing from his body. There was a phenomenon spoken about in legends but known as fact to a select few in the world, about individuals with a touch of destiny to them being assigned a celestial guardian to attend to them so that they did not stray from their intended path. Kazuya Mishima, clearly one such fated individual, was believed to have the Devil as his celestial guardian, but now Gill knew that this wasn't entirely true. Rather, this Angel was that guardian, and Gill would need to humble her in order to succeed where she had once failed.

Gill watched the Angel take flight with her wings flapping aggressively before diving towards Gill with a plummeting kick. It was a surprisingly straight-forward attack for someone that was sent from Heaven, but Gill didn't complain as he parried the attack with a flick of his wrist and countered with a rising elbow that knocked the Angel's out of the air. Before she could let gravity take hold, Gill hurried her descent back to the ground with a jumping headbutt that smashed her against the floor.

The Angel opened her eyes just in time to see Gill take to the air and attempt to drop his knees upon her, and rolled to the side to avoid the crushing attack. Gill rolled forward to lessen the impact of his missed attack, and by chance moved his head to the side just as Angel attempted to take it off with another beam of energy. Gill returned fire with another blast of ki from his outstretched fist, this time utilizing the fiery side of his power, but the Angel swatted it away and resumed her fighting stance.

There was a smile on Gill's face as he left his hand outstretched for another blast, but suddenly the Angel reminded him that she was not in the same class as the usual mortals that challenged him. With a lunging dash, the Angel closed the gap between them with such uncanny speed that Gill had no time to protect himself from the Angel driving her fist into his chin with a standing uppercut, her arm flashing in neon white energy. Gill had absorbed a similar attack from Kazuya moments before, a technique that was dubbed "the Electric Wind Godfist", but the Angel's variation was so potent that it knocked Gill off of his feet and into the air.

The Angel let out a shrill battle cry and she struck the prone Gill with another Electric Wind Godfist, propelling his ascent further before driving him into the ground with a thrusting kick, followed by a jumping heel drop. Gill quickly stood up and resumed his stance just in time to parry a spinning backfist, and countered with a ki-infused punch that sent the Angel stumbling backwards to brush the flames out of her face.

She opened her eyes just in time to receive a monstrous lariat of freezing ki, encasing her upper body in ice just long enough for Gill to smash her encasing with a fiery kick. The Angel gasped as the searing pain released her from her prison, but the shock in her eyes turned back into determination as she stepped to the right to avoid another punch, and sent Gill rocketing into the air with a standing uppercut even more forceful than the last. This time, Gill was sent rocketing into the air like he had just been launched out of a cannon...and awaiting him at the zenith of his ascent was the Angel who sent him up there in the first place.

With almost instantaneous movement, Angel exceeded the speed of which she had sent Gill flying and smashed him back down to the ground with an axehandle blow. With the jewel in her tiara flashing with power, Angel's eyes flashed white as she prepared to skewer Gill upon her ki, but as she looked down, she received a blast of frozen ki to her face, this time encasing her entire head in ice and causing her to careen down to the tiled floor like a broken airplane. The resulting crash splintered the floor once more, and Gill landed gracefully on one knee before standing up to see that the ice had not yet been shattered.

Mercy was an essential part of Gill's teachings as the savior, but there was a morbid curiosity about the prospect of the Angel suffocating in her icy helmet. To that end, he folded his arms and waited for Angel to break free with her beam bisecting the helmet and forcing air back in her lungs. Apparently even servants of Heaven required air if they were to walk among the mortals, even short-term.

"You are a worthy opponent! This is quite entertaining!"

Gill waited for the Angel to again dash towards him, and prepared himself for another uppercut. This time, the Angel went low and disrupted Gill's footing with a sweeping kick, followed by a rising knee that sent him stumbling backwards. Not willing to give her foe a chance to recover, Angel decided to once again take Gill for a ride, this time with her directly guiding his ascent: a leaping uppercut her charge had dubbed the "Thunder Godfist" followed by her latching onto the still-careening Gill and driving him headfirst into the floor. Quickly rising up, the Angel looked down at Gill and unleashed a thin beam of power. This one wasn't enough to pierce Gill, but it was powerful enough to leave a scorch mark on his left arm when he raised it to defend himself.

Ignoring the pain, Gill lunged for the Angel while still in the midst of firing her attack and grabbed onto her head, this time with his left hand infused with fiery energy. With the potency of the attack greatly reduced, Gill squeezed down on her head and again wondered with morbid curiosity the limits of the Angel's unique physiology. Did servants of Heaven bleed? If so, what was it that ran through their veins? Was it blood as red as any other human? If it wasn't, was it something that could be gathered and analyzed for later study?

The Angel grit her teeth before wrapping her hands around Gill's massive arm and focusing her supernatural ki into them. With her wings flapping wildly, Angel lifted the arm off of her and wrapped out to grab Gill's throat just as her wings brought that two of them airborne. Now in full control, Angel nosedived into the ground and again drove Gill's head into the ground, and then began pounding him into submission with mounted punches.

Gill lifted his legs and pushed the Angel off of him before rising back up and seeing that the scar on his left arm was healing up as expected. Angel focused her ki into her right fist and lunged forward in an attempt to run Gill through, but Gill narrowly stepped to the side and delivered a swift chop to the back of the Angel's head. The Angel stumbled forward before spinning around with a roundhouse kick, this time hitting her mark and forcing Gill to stumble backwards. She lunged for Gill once more, this time jumping into the air with the intent to drive her fist through his head.

"ENOUGH!"

Gill's wild swat hit its mark, sending the Angel careening to the side and sliding to a halt on the floor. Standing up on one knee taking deep, focused breaths, the Angel looked up to her opponent and saw that he too was taking long gasps for air. But after a moment, Gill smiled warmly at the Angel and stood upright while lowering his fists. Apparently, Gill wished to talk to her, from one savior to another.

"In the excitement of battle...I have forgotten my upbringing. We are kindred spirits, you and I, and we should not be fighting over something so petty. We are higher beings, placed on this Earth to guide and teach. Let us compare philosophies for a moment…"

For all of Angel's fighting prowess and aggression, in order to be considered protected under Heaven's power it was necessary for her to remain a source of purity. Gill knew that, if she truly was an Angel, that purity would include a strong desire for peace and diplomacy if she were offered it. Therefore, the Angel stood up and lowered her fighting stance while Gill folded his arms and spoke.

"This Kazuya of yours, surely you are not blind to how far he has strayed from the path you would have him take. There was a woman in his life, a Ms. Jun Kazama, that made an effort to right the course: I will assume that her involvement was your doing. You positioned her as a mate that would balance the darkness in his heart, but instead it weakened him enough to ensure that darkness would be all he ever knows. Now instead of seeing his offspring as a symbol of love, he has chosen the path of jealousy and seeks to take back the power he passed down. Surely this is enough evidence that he is a poison tree: you can cut off the branches, but unless you address the roots it is purely superficial alterations."

The Angel narrowed her eyes as Gill realized he had struck a nerve.

"My way will ensure that the poison is expelled while still leaving behind the tree. The darkness within Kazuya is now cooked into his very genes, and through my power I can set him back on the proper path...but, perhaps you are right. You would know Kazuya better than I would, so you would likely know what is best for him. Perhaps, even with all of my power, it wouldn't be enough to eradicate the darkness. Sometimes, it is a man's calling to fight on the side of villany, no matter how much he might try to deny it. Who am I to force a man to be something he is not?"

It was a quick instant, but Gill identified the moment the Angel let down her guard and made his next play. WIth his arms still folded, Gill watched as the Angel's eyes widened as she noticed something vital had happened without her notice. It started as faint shadow that loomed over the fallen Kazuya, as if to spotlight the topic of Gill's monologue, but the shadow gradually widened to make the Angel realize that something was falling down towards the sky, threatening to crush Kazuya underneath it.

That something was a fiery beach ball-sized meteor, coming down too fast for Kazuya to get away from even if he were still conscious. With her tiara once again flashing with power, Angel unleashed her lethal laser of energy and burst the meteor into hundreds of fragments that rained down upon Kazuya's body. She angrily turned to Gill, but her anger turned to shock as she followed Gill's gaze into the sky and saw that meteory was just the first of many more to come.

Gill watched Angel rush past him and to Kazuya's side, kneeling down next to him with her wings shielding him from the hail that was about to come down upon them. A sense of dark pride welled up within Gill as he realized that he within reach of a magnificent victory, having checkmated a servant of God not by using his strength, but by using his mind. In his world of perfect duality, honesty was balanced with deceit, and thus he had no qualms using deceit to take advantage of one so unbalanced in her purity. Even angels were not above Gill's desire to teach those less fortunate than him.

Now, Gill would watch just how far the Angel's devotion to her mission as Kazuya's celestial guardian would take her as the shower finally came down upon her, the boulders of fire and ice shattering across her body as she clenched her teeth in pain. Gill had engaged this Angel in a battle of fists and a battle of wits, but now he was determined to go for the hat trick and win the battle of wills. She attempted to stand back up, but every time she was about to rise on her feet another meteor was crash against her and force her back to her knees. She could have moved out of the way, but doing so would have spelled certain doom for her charge. Now she would be left with a choice: she could either submit and hand over Kazuya, or she could fall while trying to keep him in her custody.

"You are defeated, servant of Heaven! Accept your defeat, and accept that my way is the best way! As you are...as you...are…"

Gill's voice trailed off as he felt a sudden outburst of dark, evil energy emerge from the Angel. The dark energy faded for a moment, and Gill at first believed it was the excitement of watching the Angel struggle playing tricks on his mind, but then the wave of violent intent erupted from her once more as she unleashed an unearthly screech. Now that he had a chance to feel the energy again, he realized it was quite familiar, and turned to the Pandora fragment being held on display on the wall that began this entire episode in the first place. Sure enough, it was resonating with the Angel's screams, leaving Gill to conclude that she was drawing power from it.

But Pandora's power could only be activated by one party sacrificing a fraction of their life force to another, and there were no other warriors that Angel could draw from...except for Kazuya, who upon closer inspection was grabbing onto the Angel's ankle before the grip loosened and he again remained still. Gill had believed he had found his advantage due to Kazuya and Angel being from such different extremes, but now the Devil Made Flesh was lending his power to the Angel, who accepted the dark energy even if it cost her Heaven's protection.

"You would give up your seat for this aberration? Does this man truly mean that much to you? Is this love, Angel? Are you willing to sacrifice so much for the sake of love?"

With one final screech, Angel outstretched and sent a ripple across the temple that completely disintegrated what was left of Gill's Meteor Strike before turning to Gill and staring a hole into his soul, eliciting an emotion that made Gill feel very much mortal, because those who were truly immortal did not feel something as earthbound as fear. The Angel's eyes were now glowing red, her pale skin darkened to a pure obsidian and her hair and clothes gaining an unnatural ultraviolet hue. The exotic tattoos that now marked her skin with neon light was a sign that she sacrificed whatever perfection Heaven had blessed upon her for this mission.

And now, her mission entailed the complete and utter decimation of he who would take her charge from her.

It was only a second, but a second was all the Angel needed to flap her wings once and immediately relocate herself directly in front of Gill. With a shout, the Angel delivered a ki-infused thrust kick. With most of the Angel's other attacks, Gill would only grunt and stumble, but this time the kick sent him spiraling through the air before crashing hard against one of the stone pillars of the temple, causing it to splinter and shudder. Gill groaned as he clutched his stomach where he had been hit, but he had barely opened his eyes before the Angel was already in front of him again, pummeling him with a rapid flurry of punches and kicks. After a countless number of impossibly swift, painful strikes, the Angel charged her ki once more and put Gill through the pillar and watched it collapse upon him.

The Angel took to the skies once more and watched Gill emerge from the rubble and throw one of the larger pieces of debris at her, but a single swipe of her hand was all that was needed to bisect the debris before the two halves disintegrated into powder, completely obliterated by that display of power. With her eyes flashing with wrath, the Angel dove like a swan with her hands flashing with tainted energy, but Gill stopped her in her tracks by grabbing her throat just before she could overwhelm him.

With a grin, Gill reared back before delivering a swift headbutt to the Angel, but was surprised when seconds later the Angel fired back with one of her own. Gill's grin turned into a grimace as he headbutted her again, and then that grimace turned into a shout of pain as Angel broke free from his grip and placed him in one of her own, delivering headbutt after headbutt until Gill was forced onto his knees.

The Angel let out another screech before resuming her Headbutt Carnival, toppling Gill onto his back even as the Angel kept her grip around the back of his neck. With the Angel now mounting him, she continued hammering away even as Gill's head become embedded into the tiled floor and both halves of his dichotomized blood spilled out of his forehead. Finally, the Angel relented in her assault and looked down to see that Gill was still breathing, and widened her crimson eyes in rage as the jewel in her tiara flashed with power once more.

Gill's eyes shot open as he reached out and grabbed the Angel's head with both his hands, delivering a retorting headbutt infused with both halves of his ki. The Angel stumbled back as Gill rose back to his feet, his face now contorted into a snarl.

"How...DARE you!? HOW DARE YOU!?"

Gill clasped his hands together and fired off a fused ball of energy, unleashing a tandem burning and freezing sensation to the Angel as he too revealed his true nature: six feathered wings that emerged from his back as his body became host to a celestial glow.

"It is my turn to give you a trial, my heretical friend. If you wish to cast your lot with your precious Kazuya, prove it to me that your resolve is unbreakable! My Seraphic Wing completely purges any and all darkness that is within its reach! If even one ray touches him, he will likely be reduced to ashes with how much darkness has infected his genetic code! The only way to save him is to take all of it onto yourself, Angel! It's my will against yours...challenge me, if you have the courage!"

In the throes of berserker fury, courage was something the Angel had in abundance. If anything, courage was the one trait that shone the brightest out of any of the prerequisites of enjoying Heaven's protection. The Angel outstretched her arms and protected Kazuya from Gill's lethal rays emerging from his body, subjecting herself to the full brunt of his vaunted power. In ancient times, angels such as herself were considered those closest to God, and thus beyond anything as base as pain. But the Angel knew that pain was every bit as valid for her as it was for any mortal, but she also knew that it was only through pain that courage could be born.

To keep her mind off of her own pain, the Angel reminded herself of her purpose here, and why she continued pursuing the seemingly futile mission of ensuring Kazuya's true destiny was fulfilled. Through all of the hate, through all of the conniving, through all of the treachery, there was still one trait that ensured that Kazuya could be saved. That emotion was courage, for Kazuya would never yield even in the face of insurmountable odds. Some would have called it arrogance, but the Angel knew better as his celestial guardian. And as long as even a speck of that courage remained, then it was not completely hopeless.

And as the Angel folded her wings inward before unleashing her counterattack in the form of a thick river of power that emerged from her forehead, she ensured that the validity of her mission would be something that Gill would never, ever forget…

* * *

"Sir!"

"Mmmm…"

Kazuya groaned as he was woken from his slumber and re-acquainted with the throbbing pain throughout his body. With his eyes focusing, he saw the man who woke him up: a soldier wearing the G-Corporation uniform along with three other men with the same insignia on their uniforms. He wondered how much time had passed since he lost consciousness, and slowly began piecing together what had happened to him before he was put under.

Kazuya took a breath and immediately winced as the smell of charred flesh entered his nostrils. Turning his head to try and locate the smell, he didn't have to look far to see where it was coming from. Lying on the ground was what remained of a very large man, with only his blackened bones left over from whatever calamity befell him. The last thing Kazuya could remember, he was at the complete mercy of the man called Gill, and that death was certain.

But then he remembered the dream he was having before he was woken up by his underling. That couldn't have been what happened to Gill… could it?"

"Sir! Are you alright?"

Kazuya straightened himself and turned to the Pandora fragment laying a few paces away from him. As he reached down to grab it, he paused when he noticed a white feather lying on top of it. Suddenly the dream was becoming more and more prophetic by the second. Within the dream, there was a woman that Kazuya had not seen in a very long time, and the last thing Kazuya could recall from the dream was that he reached out to her.

But it was only a dream...it had to have been...

"We have what we came for. Let's move out."

* * *

"Master Gill…"

That name was all Kolin could whisper as she fell to her knees and began to sob. It was not uncommon for Gill to come to this temple and tend to his thoughts, and being that Gill was the Savior of the Society, there was little worry about him being faced with an adversary that could threaten him. But clearly the Society had paid for their hubris, for now Gill lay dead at her feet, and all she could do now was curse the foolish men without the organization who did not come to his aid.

In her heart were emotions that Gill had warned her against nurturing: sorrow, heartbreak, depression...anger, hate, vengeance…

But as one of her tears fell on her former master's ribcage, the skeleton suddenly flashed with power, forcing Kolin onto her feet as the remains were engulfed in a bright light. Seconds later, the smell of offal and viscera filled Kolin's nose, forcing her to cover her nose in fear of suffocating on the stench of innards. Her eyes watered further, not just from sorrow, but from the odor, but a few more seconds passed before the smell disappeared and her beloved master stood in front of her once more…

...in all of his magnificent glory.

"M-master!"

Kolin blushed profusely as she turned away and quickly scrambled for the blanket that she had brought with him: a gift that she had knit herself to give to him before discovering his body. With a smile, Gill accepted Kolin's gift and wrapped it around his body like a cloak before caressing her chin and forcing her to make eye contact with him.

"With my Resurrection technique, even a death with that much finality means nothing to me...but I appreciate your concern anyway, Kolin. I am blessed to have you at my side."

Raising his hand to Kolin's hair, Gill reached out as if to stroke her head like a cat...but a moment later, pulled out a shimmering white feather that had become caught in her unique hairstyle. Though Kolin thought of Gill as perfect, there was clearly much that he still had to learn. He had let pride and arrogance fill his heart, and as such, he made the foolish challenge to someone he had considered a peer but was in truth still far beyond his station. Because of his hubris, he had lost the fight and the Secret Society's valuable Pandora fragment.

But in this defeat, Gill could only smile as he looked to the stars and realized that the battle had granted him wisdom that would only improve his standing as humanity's shepherd. If even an angel was willing to sacrifice her divinity for the sake of her convictions, then there was no reason that Gill could not empathize with mortals who would do the same. It was through that conviction, hoping against all reasoning, that made humanity achieve the impossible, and it would be through that conviction that Gill would achieve true enlightenment rather than the false one he thought he had reached.

"Very well...I will leave him in your care for now. Well done, servant of Heaven."


End file.
